Siblings are the most likely persons in the world to treat their learning-disabled sibling as equal to any non-learning-disabled person. Loving relationships between siblings will help alleviate the burden that the learning-disabled child experiences in other settings.

My brother is 7 years younger than me and has Downs Syndrome, though it is a very mild case. He is only a year behind in school (he is 15 and just started his freshman year at high school) and has been going to some kind of educational facility since he was 3 or 4.

Granted, life would be a lot different if he hadn’t been mentally disabled, but I wouldn’t change him for anything. The only thing that’s different “hard” I suppose is that my mom still doesn’t like leaving him alone at home so we have to coordinate our plan so that someone is home or can bring him with us. Though we have started leaving him alone for a few hours at a time and he’s completely fine.

We’re hoping in a few years that he’ll be able to live in a group home and hold down a simple-task job and I’m sure he’ll thrive in it.

I have learning disability. My siblings were supported me though high school. I was treated as the same as my siblings when I was in grade school. The negative part of my LD was I was always sad that I couldn’t do the same school work as my siblings. How I’m teaching at a day care center with fours year old. If you have any ?’s you can e-mail me at [email protected]

Hello Sporty, Where do I begin..my daughter was born first and has ODD..Occupational Defiance Disorder and then my son was born 3 years later with Autism. We learned of my son’s disability at age of 3 and my daughters was undiagnosed until later. I attended school on how to raise my son properly and to evaluate his needs to accomplish his goals in life while he is constantly attended to by our state assigned counselor. Anyway, in the mean time, my daughter is lashing at my son teasing him and hitting him causing him to re-bell and this is due to her needing more attention. In our county, we have a non-profit organization that provides my daughter to attend a therapy group for all siblings with a disability. The group gets to talk to one another, with counselors, if anything is bothering them and all conversations are kept confidential. They also have some snacks and the make crafts at times to keep them busy. The group meets once a month for 6 months. The age ranges from 7 – 14 however, the groups are divided with ages closer together for socializing. Anyway, I hope this helps your project. Update, since my daughter has started middle school, the constant picking on my son has subsided. YES!

It can go both ways:

Positive, siblings can support their LD sib, fend off the bully’s, help their LD learn in different ways.

Negative, siblings can imitate the inappropriate behaviors, isolate their LD sibling, fight with them, etc.